Dr. Beck Weathers never expected to get a second chance at life, but an everyday occurrence we often take for granted became a small miracle on Mount Everest.
“After 22 hours in the storm, 15 hours frozen face down in the ice, a miracle occurred,” Weathers said. “And that miracle simply stated was that I opened my eyes.”
Weathers, a survivor of the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy and inspiration for the major motion picture Everest, was the featured keynote speaker at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) 2017 Cattle Industry Convention Wednesday in Nashville.
His astonishing story of survival stems from one of the most violent and fatal storms in the history of Mount Everest that took the lives of eight climbers in his group. Despite losing part of his nose, his right hand, and some of his left hand to frostbite, the doctor has returned to his career as a pathologist in Dallas, Texas and has become a world-renowned speaker.
As Weathers described the events leading up to that fateful day, his blindness from the effects of high altitude and overexposure to ultraviolent radiation, and his path to survival, he also shared some valuable lessons from the experience that could apply to any of the Cattle Industry Convention attendees.
- Remember we are all from the same clay.
- You’ve got to have an anchor in your life, whether that be a family member, friend, colleagues, your God.
- Miracles do occur.
- The astonishment of life is a treasure.
“I am not a person with special gifts of strength. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am an entirely ordinary individual,” Weathers said. “If I can survive that which is unsurvivable, so can you. It exists in each of us … an enormous will and strength.”
His final analysis from the tragedy …
“The only thing that matters are the people you hold in your heart and those who hold you,” Weathers said.
